Alicia "La Pelé" Vargas (born 1954) is a Mexican former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for the

Mexico Women's National Football Team The Mexico women's national football team represents Mexico on the international stage. The squad is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and competes within CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associatio ...

in the first two Women's World Cups, organised by the International European Federation of Women's Soccer, in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

. In 1999 she was named third best woman of the Century by

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

, jointly with

Julie Foudy Julie Maurine Foudy ( ; born January 23, 1971) is an American retired soccer midfielder, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. She played for the United States women's national soccer team from 1988 to 2004 ...

Career

Vargas played football in the streets as a youth, with her brothers and other boys. Despite opposition from her parents, she continued to play and debuted aged 14 at the Guadalajara club, Mexico City. In 1970, aged 16, she played for the Mexico Women's National Football Team in the first Women's World Cup in Italy. In the quarter-finals Vargas scored 2 of Mexico's 9 goals, against Austria and the team won the game 9–0. Overall the team gained 3rd place, winning 3–2 against England in the 3rd place play off, and Vargas was offered a contract with Real Torino which she chose not to accept. It was around this time that Vargas gained the nickname "La Pelé", a reference to the highly regarded Brazilian player known as

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

. In 1971 Vargas played again in the Women's World Cup, this time in Mexico. The team made it to the finals but lost 3–0 to Denmark. The team's performance may have been affected by a dispute over pay, in which they asked for 1 million pesos to split between the team and their coaches, 20 people in total. This request was refused and the team were allegedly denied the opportunity to practice in the week before the final as a result. Vargas was once again offered a contract with Real Torino at this time, which she again declined. After the 1971 Cup the team toured around Mexico, but did not receive a salary. After a short time Vargas returned to play for Guadalajara. Later, Vargas took courses to become a physical trainer and taught in the Azcapotzalco mayor's sports hall for 28 years before retirement.

References

1954 births Living people Mexican women's footballers Mexico women's international footballers Women's association football players not categorized by position {{Mexico-women-footy-bio-stub